YouTube just made TV advertising more affordable than ever

TV advertising is notoriously expensive. YouTube just changed that.

YouTube has announced it's now letting advertisers run campaigns that specifically target users watching YouTube on television screens.

The video giant has just launched a “TV screens device type” option on its Google Ads platform. This means that advertisers will now be able to specifically target viewers who are watching YouTube content on television sets. This includes people using streaming devices such as Google’s very own Chromecast, set-top boxes like the Apple TV or Roku, video game consoles, and smart TVs.

Along with being able to carve out ad space for content developed for TV viewing, advertisers will receive television-focused analytics and special options for their ads with this YouTube update, too. Those running YouTube video ads will be able to set specific bidding prices for the TV viewers, as well as each of the other device type categories (such as computer, mobile phone, or tablet).

With the flexibility of Google Ads, YouTube is making it more affordable than ever before to run advertisements on television, albeit it being a TV tuned into YouTube.

Additionally, as standard for the other device types, YouTube now provides analytics specific to ads running on TV screens, so advertisers can strategize based on how effective these ad campaigns are.

Until this update, which was first announced as an upcoming feature in April, Google only allowed advertisers to tailor video ad campaigns for computers, mobile phones, and tablets.

Now, advertisers can fully optimize their video ads for YouTube’s growing connected-TV viewership. According to the company, “on average, users watch over 180 million hours of YouTube on TV screens every day.” With cord-cutting on the rise, those numbers are only going to get larger and YouTube is making sure its advertisers are ready to reach that audience, wherever they may be watching.